When the heart is
fresh, and the view of the future unsullied by the blemishes which have
been gathered from the experience of the past, our feelings are most
holy: we love to identify with the persons of our natural friends all
those qualities to which we ourselves aspire, and all those virtues we
have been taught to revere. The confidence with which we esteem seems a
part of our nature; and there is a purity thrown around the affections
which tie us to our kindred that after life can seldom hope to see
uninjured. The family of Mr. Wharton continued to enjoy, for the
remainder of the day, a happiness to which they had long been strangers;
and one that sprang, in its younger members, from the delights of the
most confident affection, and the exchange of the most disinterested
endearments.
Harper appeared only at the dinner table, and he retired with the cloth,
under the pretense of some engagement in his own room. Notwithstanding
the confidence created by his manner, the family felt his absence a
relief; for the visit of Captain Wharton was necessarily to be confined
to a very few days, both from the limitation of his leave of absence,
and the danger of a discovery.
All dread of consequences, however, was lost in the pleasure of the
meeting. Once or twice during the day, Mr.
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